Tripol culture. Trypillian ceramics

In order to start working on the creation of a vase in the style of Trypillia ceramics, the features of the Trypillia culture, manufacturing technology, and methods of decorating products were studied. As an example, a vase painted with a spiral ornament was taken. The selected vessel is decorated with a dense ornament in the form of spirals and stripes. The vessel is rounded, pear-shaped, on the side there are two handles, in the form of small "grips". The vase has a small neck, slightly widening at the top. The product is about 30 - 35 centimeters high. The round shape of the vase indicates that the anthropomorphic pear-shaped vessels embody the image of the Goddess, embodying the image of a cow or the Two Horned Goddesses. The identification with the cow is typical of the Great Goddess. This attribution is also confirmed by the lunar symbolism of the image. Made of white clay, decorated with engobe painting. The vase was made using the technique of "tow molding". Such a vessel was used to store liquids.

Before starting work, a sketch was created, which is necessary in the future for the precise manufacture of the product. After creating the sketch, preparations for the creation of the product began. The following tools were needed for the work: a tournette (to create the shape of the product), brushes (painting the vase ornament), a sponge (wetting the surface of the vase), a scraper (smoothing the surface), a knife, a wooden spatula, a cut.

To make a vase, the following materials were required: white clay, engobe for painting (red clay).

Consider the stages of manufacturing a ceramic product (vase):

1. Preparation of clay dough. Clay dough should be plastic, wet, knead well and take the desired shape. Initially, the bottom of the vase is formed, laying out the bundles in a circle, fastening them together with a slip mass. After sculpting from bundles, the product is leveled, smoothed, once again we compare the shape of the vase with the sketch.

2. Painting of the product. The product was painted on a “raw”, that is, on a wet surface. The painting was done with a red engobe, which includes water and red clay. Engobe was applied with a brush, repeating the shape of a spiral. The spiral in Trypillian culture was a special symbol - a symbol of what they worshiped or feared. Perhaps she symbolized something incomprehensible, but eternal: whether the change of seasons, day and night, the mysteries of life and death, the rotation of the starry sky or the circular motion of the sun - something that they could not comprehend, but what they saw with their own eyes. The spiral was for them a sign of what they saw, and perhaps its meaning.

3. Drying. The drying process must proceed gradually and evenly, otherwise the likelihood that the product will break or deform increases. The product must dry as slowly as possible, because the degree of moisture and shrinkage of the clay is very high. And uniform drying should be for the reason that the joints, protruding and small parts dry much faster than the bulk of the product. good environment- this is a flat surface (preferably wooden, newspapers can be placed to absorb moisture), on which we place products, the absence of drafts and direct sunlight; away from heaters. On average, the process of drying products at room temperature lasts for two weeks (depending on the size of the product, the period may be shorter or longer), you need to be especially careful when drying large and complex products. During the first 2-3 days of drying, the product was dried in polyethylene a bag that was periodically opened so that condensate did not accumulate. When the clay acquires a certain density (the color of the clay changes, it becomes lighter), then the product continued to dry in the open air.

At the last stage, the drying process can be accelerated, for example, by drying it out in warmer places (in an oven, an oven with air access, i.e. leaving the cabinet door slightly ajar) without getting warm air streams on the product with a gradual increase in temperature. After drying, the product became lighter, denser, the color of the vase became lighter. The dried product has acquired a sufficiently high strength. Drying speed depends on temperature and humidity environment, as well as the shape and dimensions of the product. Drying time in natural conditions - 3-10 days, in drying devices - 6 hours or less. If the product is not sufficiently dried, it may crack during firing.

4. Roasting. After drying the clay, water comes out of the product, but not completely. Despite the fact that the product has lost weight and has the color inherent in dry clay, water particles still remain in it.

In order to remove the remaining moisture from the clay product, the product was fired in a muffle furnace at a temperature of 960 degrees. At a high temperature, all the water will come out and evaporate and the product will become dense and solid. This is due to the fact that water particles reduce the density of clay. When all the moisture is evaporated, the constituents of the clay bind tightly to each other. Further, after the furnace cooled down, the product was removed from the furnace.

Ariushd reflects one of the early local variants of a culture widespread in the basins of the Cepet, Prut, Dniester, Bug and Dnieper, where these rivers cross a loess-covered wooded plateau that extends east of the Carpathians and juts out into the East European Plain. With all the uniformity in the economy, household equipment and aesthetic principles underlying this culture, there are also differences in the architecture of dwellings, ornamentation of dishes and in the ratio of individual elements within the overall economic system, which help to identify individual local groups and chronological phases. On the basis of a typological study of ceramic ornamentation, Passek distinguishes five phases - 0, I, II, III and IV, of which I, apparently, coincides with Ariushd, while 0 is represented by settlements in Eastern Galicia, between the Bug and the Dniester, and , possibly in Trajan, on Bistrita. Its typology is confirmed by stratigraphic data only in two places - in Cucuteni and Nezvishka, where the remains of settlements with phase I pottery are buried under the cultural layer with phase II pottery. But on the basis of this typology, it can be concluded that the inhabitants of the Carpathian villages belonging to phases 0 and I gradually moved to the northeast, until in phase IV they crossed the Dnieper near Kyiv and penetrated into the forest zone ; after that, leaving the forest-steppe zone, they turned into the steppe and reached the coast of the Black Sea near Kherson.

The remains of dwellings with destroyed stoves form irregular rectangles of pieces of baked clay, usually combined under one common name "sites", which in fact represent several various types buildings. Everywhere in the first phase, and in some areas even later, the burnt clay, as in Ariushda, is a collapsed wicker plastered wall. But in the II and III phases, houses of a new and more complex architecture appeared in the basins of the Bug and Dnieper. According to available information, the clay floors in these houses were deliberately burned with the help of fires laid out on them, as a result of which stoves, pots and grain graters are already on the surface of the layer of baked clay. In some cases, the floor consists of several layers; sometimes on the lower surface of one of these layers one can find imprints of horizontally laid split blocks, on which clay was superimposed. It is believed that this layering is a consequence of the renovation of the floors, which was sometimes accompanied by the expansion of the entire building. The settlement in Kolomiyshchyna on the Dnieper consisted of 39 houses located radially along two concentric circles with diameters of 60-70 and 180 m; the entrance to the houses was always facing the center. In small houses, measuring 7 X 4 m and less, there is only one oven and one grain grater, and there are from 10 to 15 vessels. But there were few such houses. Larger houses often reach sizes such as 22 X 5 m or 17 X 8 m; they are divided by partitions and have 4-5 ovens, the same number of grain graters, 30 or more vessels. Krichevsky believes that such houses were formed as a result of an extension to a small house of premises intended for new families that arose within one large household. In some settlements, for example, in Vladimirovka (II), along with such ground structures, there were semi-dugouts, consisting of a vestibule and a long room with a stove and clay benches.
along one of the walls. In phase IV, people stopped building large houses designed for many families. One dwelling in Buchach belonging to this phase, dug to a depth of 1 m into the loess soil, the roof of which rested on vertical pillars, had an area of ​​4 square meters. m, and a quarter of this area was occupied by a double oven made of stones.

Clay models found near Uman in the Bug basin give a complete picture of the internal structure of a small Trypillia house and completely coincide with the data obtained as a result of excavations carried out during recent times Soviet archaeologists.

The excavated dwellings also contain a vestibule stove (which in real houses was built on a frame of willow twigs), a low cruciform elevation (with a depression on the surface), vessels for storing grain and a grain grater. The models also depict the hostess rubbing the grain. The model from Noon, shown in fig. 71, is 42.5 cm long and 36 cm wide. Some authors suggest that because this model and the model from Sushkovka have legs, they both depict a pile dwelling, but this assumption is not supported by excavation data. Another model from Sushkovka apparently depicts one of the dugouts with a central stove, and the model from Kolomiyshchyna reproduces a gable thatched roof with a smoke hole at one end.

The Trypillian culture societies cultivated wheat (Triticum vulgare, compactum and monococcum), barley, millet and rye, as well as some other plants such as dill, and bred mainly cattle, but also pigs and sheep or goats. In the IV phase near Odessa, the number of sheep bones increases. Horse bones also appear in abundance; horse bones have also been found at several earlier sites. It has been established that in Darabani, in Bessarabia, they belong to wild, and in Usatov - to domestic horses. There are reports of finds in two settlements of camel bones, but it is doubtful that they date back to ancient times. Great importance as an addition to agricultural products, they had the meat of wild animals and birds (moose, red deer, beavers and wild ducks), fish, shellfish (Unio) and acorns. But arrowheads and fishing hooks are rare; clay sinkers for fishing nets are much more common. Economically favorable areas are densely dotted with settlements. South of Kyiv on an area of ​​307 sq. km there are 26 settlements II and III phases. But not a single settlement was inhabited during more than one phase of cultural development, so that their remains never form tells. On this basis, it can be assumed that the Trypillians, like the Danubian tribes, were forced, due to the predatory system of agriculture, to periodically transfer their settlements to a new place. However, these movements do not seem to have occurred very often, since the addition of additional premises indicates that the houses served as dwellings for at least two generations.

Usually, farmers were content with the manufacture of tools with local materials. During all periods they used adzes or hoes made of soft rocks and hammer-axes of characteristic Danubian shapes drilled with a hollow drill, and along with this adzes or hoes made of red deer antler. Axes appear for the first time towards the end of stage III. In Cucuteni, stone battle axes appeared in stage II; there was also found a battle ax made of deer antler, imitating stone specimens. But everywhere the ax becomes widespread only in the IV phase. In general, up to this time military weapon, apparently, was not in use, except for the maces with projections from Veremya (II), on the Middle Dnieper, which resembles maces from Mariupol and from one grave III period on Mures.

In some cases, however, Trypillians used imported materials. In phase II, obsidian was used in Petreny. Copper occurs already in phase 0. In Izvoara, in Moldavia, it is represented by a pin to a small plate, cold-forged; 53, top right, with a flat triangular, somewhat elongated dagger with an axial rib and rivets and bracelets made of bronze not rich in tin. In the settlements of the same phase on the Middle Dnieper, two adzes and an eye-axe-hoe were found along with casting molds. After that, the overland trade in metal apparently died out. But nevertheless, in the IV phase in Usatovo, on the Black Sea coast, one dagger with an axial rib and one ax were found, and in the village of Gorodishtya, which belongs to the same time, on the Prut, a flat adze was found.

Products of Trypillian potters have long enjoyed well-deserved fame. In all settlements, they molded vessels of intricate shapes from well-worked ferruginous clay, and often very large sizes, which, after firing, acquired an even, mostly orange or brick-red color. A certain decline in the technique of pottery production is also observed in phases III and IV, when, for example, in order to mask surface defects, the vessels were covered with a thicker layer of lining (engobe). Throughout the entire period of existence of the Trypillia culture, three types of ornamentation techniques were used, although in different proportions: monochrome painting with black paint on the orange surface of the vessel itself or on the light background of the lining, polychrome painting in black in combination with red on the white lining or in combination with white on the red clay surfaces and in-depth ornamentation in the form of lines so wide that they almost deserve the name flutes. In phases 0 and I, the fourth method was used, although not very widely, - a ribbed ornament, as in Ariushda. On the Middle Dnieper and, although in lesser degree, on the Bug in phases II and III, the painted ornament prevails over the incised ornament, but in Bessarabia and Moldavia, judging by the published finds, the ratio was reversed. The ornament in the O phase was a pattern in the form of repeating spirals covering the entire surface of the vessel, which already in the I phase gave way to closed S-shaped spirals. In the course of further development, these spirals turn into circles, and the old method of ornamentation, in which the pattern covered the entire surface of the vessel, gives way to a constructive composition that emphasizes the division of the vessel. In all phases, the vessels had shapes characteristic of pottery, including goblets on pallets and hollow bases of phase I, of the type common in Ariushda (Fig. 68), but along with this, there are also double bases known as binocular vessels. The latter are more characteristic of phases II and III (Fig. 72, 3rd row, third from the left, and 5th row, extreme right). Pear-shaped vessels with helmet-shaped lids (Fig. 72, 5th row, 3) ascend to phase 0 and are retained until phase II, when vessels with a wide neck begin to appear (1st row, left). Craters similar to northern goblets with a funnel-shaped neck (3rd row, rim) are not found before phase II, and vessels with handles (4th row, second from left) are characteristic only of phase III. From II to IV phases there are bowls with three or more legs. Starting from phase II, along with the usual red ceramics, there are coarse vessels of relatively poor firing,

molded from porous clay, sometimes with an admixture of crushed shells. Often their surface is covered with grooves applied by a comb; sometimes on the edges of such vessels you can find stucco images of animal heads. In terms of technique, this pottery resembles the ceramics of forest hunting and fishing tribes and is found in especially large quantities on the border of the forest belt, along its entire length from Bukovina to the Middle Dnieper. Finally, even in the II phase in Kukuten and in Gorodisht, on the Prut, ceramics with corded ornamentation were used, and in such settlements as Gorodsk, on Teterev, and Usatovo, corded ceramics significantly prevail over ceramics of genuine Trypillia samples.

Judging by the entire excavated settlement in Kolomiyshchyna, the Trypillia society was built on the basis of the same equality and democracy as the community of the Danube culture in Cologne-Lindenthal, since the size of each house was determined by the number of families inhabiting it together. However, Nestor mentions that in Feldeleseni, a settlement of the 1st phase in Moldavia, one house was richer than the others, and a stone pommel from a wand in the form of an animal was found in it; this wand could belong to the leader. The mace from Veremye may also have been a symbol of power.

Items for practical purposes are accompanied by an equally rich set of items of domestic worship. Clay, mostly female, figurines were widespread in all periods, although in the early phase they are less common in Ukraine than in Moldavia. In phase A, all of them have signs of steatopygia and are completely covered with rifled spirals (Fig. 70, 2). Phase B is characterized by flatter figurines with holes for hanging, completely naked, only with a necklace around their necks (Fig. 73, b and e). Models of thrones, figurines of animals (mainly bulls) and tauromorphic vessels, as well as models of houses, may have had the same ritual purpose. In Ariushda, clay seals (pintaders) were in use in the first phase. There are no burials that would suggest the existence of any cult of the dead (the old theory that the sites are the remains of "burial buildings" has been completely refuted). There is, however, information that in several dwellings, especially on the Middle Dnieper, skulls and fragments of burnt human bones were found.

By the beginning of phase IV, the classical system of Trypillia economy fell into decay and the culture based on it, whether as a result of internal changes or under some external influence, was transformed into a new one, retaining only some of the old elements, as,

for example, a few painted pottery. In Usatovo, the most common beef cattle used for food is not a cow, but a sheep. Horse bones are found in large numbers. Large houses with baked clay floors are disappearing. A prominent place is occupied by military weapons, such as battle axes. The leaders are moving up. They were buried in stone tombs under a mound, which also covered the poor graves, which apparently belonged to slaves. Amphorae decorated with blast-hole ornaments from mounds, from Usatovo and from other settlements, are similar to late versions of Saxo-Thuringian ceramics (p. 235), and the shape of the burial structures corresponds to one of the variants of the Black Sea burials that replaced the burials of the catacomb type (p. 221). At the same time in Western Ukraine agricultural settlements gave way to settlements whose inhabitants were engaged in breeding pigs. These people buried their dead in large stone cists and placed globular amphoras in the graves (p. 263). The question is to what extent these changes are the result of internal development Trypillia culture societies, and in which - the result of the invasion of the steppes and forests of pastoral tribes, will be discussed below. Even later, near Kyiv, people of the Srubnaya stage poured their barrows, characteristic of the Black Sea cultures, on the places of the abandoned Trypillia villages, causing severe damage to the burnt clay floors of the destroyed houses. In Monteoru - one of the settlements bronze age in Wallachia - colored ceramics of the IV phase are found in the layers preceding the stratifications of the V period.

These facts shed light on the fate of the Trypillian culture and make it possible to establish a terminus ante quem for its entire development, which, apparently, ceased by about 1400 BC. e. The ribbed dagger and the bronze bracelet from Cucuteni II, if they originate from Central Europe, seem to be earlier than period IV, about 1600 BC. e. Based on the same assumptions, the upper limit of phase I with its clay seals (pintaders) should be limited to the II Danubian period. On the Lower Danube, this phase undoubtedly coincides in time with the spread of the Gumelnitsa culture. A more precise limit can be established on the basis of the finds of fragments of gray Minin tableware brought from the Aegean world, found, according to Schmidt, in Cucuteni "between layers of phases I and II", and, according to Nestor, in Feldeleseni, in the "leader's house" . If the definition of this pottery is correct, the beginning of stage I should be dated to no earlier than 1900 BC. e. On the other hand, this stage could not have begun even much later, if several sherds from Ariushd were correctly identified as early Helladic "ancient lacquer" pottery. In any case, five centuries is quite enough time for the development of Trypillia culture, which is briefly described here, since it is easy to prove that no single phase covered more than two generations.

The culture we have described is basically Danubian. Its formation, apparently, was the result of the spread to the east of the Danubian culture, which already experienced the influence of the Aegean world in the II period. The acceleration of its further development could well be facilitated by the resumption of the direct connection between Moldavia and Lesser Wallachia, on the one hand, and the Aegean world, on the other, which is indicated by shards of imported, as is assumed, Early Helladic and Minin ceramics and which was caused by the development of trade in gold and copper from deposits in the Carpathian and Transylvanian mountains. It is possible that later these ties were cut off as a result of the transfer of Aegean trade from Central Europe to the Adriatic coast and, perhaps, through Bulgaria to the Black Sea harbors, south of the mouth of the Danube.

The first prototype of this symbol of life, the symbol of the eternal movement of the world, which in Slavic languages was called "Kolovrat" or "solntsevrat", and all over the world gained fame under the name "swastika", it is considered an ornament on a mammoth bone bracelet found in a Neolithic site in Ukraine (Mezin culture), dated 20 millennium BC. The oldest graphic images swastikas as a sign date back to 10-15 millennia BC. Archaeologists find this sign in Mesopotamia on the banks of the Indus River on objects from the 8th millennium BC. and on things only emerging in the fifth millennium Sumerian culture.
Of course, for us, the children of the 20th century, in which so many atrocities were committed under this sign, it is not pleasant and even hateful. But... if you suppress emotions and look objectively at this innocent sign, then you have to state that all over the world since ancient times it has been and remains one of the main symbols.
Translated from the sacred language of the Hindus, Sanskrit, the swastika (su - good, asti - being) means "good luck." However, both among the ancient Indians and among the pagan Slavs, this symbol was associated with the cult of the sun, was considered a sign of the solar deities and was called the "solar wheel". Among the Slavs, it was a sign of the god of thunder Perun, among the Buddhists it was called the "Seal of the Buddha's Heart." He was beaten out on the statues of Buddha - a man spinning the wheel of time. Present on almost all continents except Australia, this sign with ancient times is found among all the peoples of Eurasia, in particular among the Celts, Scythians, Sarmatians, Bashkirs and Chuvashs, in pre-Christian Ireland, in Scotland, Iceland and Finland.
Over time, the swastika begins to be used in a broader philosophical sense, as a symbol of fertility and rebirth. It acquires many different derived meanings from different peoples - as a symbol of the running of time in a circle, it turns into a sign of longevity in Japan, a sign of immortality and infinity in China. For Muslims, it means the four cardinal points and controls the change of the four seasons. The first, still persecuted Christians disguised their cross under the swastika, it was their emblem of Christ and a symbol of humility, like arms crossed as a sign of humility on the chest.
It is impossible to describe and even list everything, and we did not set ourselves such a goal. What is clear is that since prehistoric times, the "sun wheel" has been perceived as a good sign, a sign of the sun and light, as an amulet and a talisman that brings good luck, and it can be found in a direct graphic or stylized form on a wide variety of objects in many cultures, including and Russian - on altars and in the paintings of temples, the architraves of houses, sacred vessels, on coins, clothes and weapons; The peoples of Africa and the Indians of North and South America are no exception in this series. Canadian Indians painted similar signs on their canoes.
After the overthrow of the autocracy, the swastika (Kolovrat) appeared on the banknotes of the Provisional Government, and this money was in use until 1922. It is said that the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had a special fondness for this sign. She put it on the pages of her diary, on greeting cards and in exile she drew with her own hand in the Ipatiev House - her last refuge in Yekaterinburg.
From all that has been said, it becomes quite obvious that people from ancient times lived not only with vital concerns. The problems of the universe worried them no less than us. About how they understood the phenomena of the surrounding world, about their abstract thinking, we can guess from the drawings preserved on household items, unraveling the secret meaning of their symbols.
The question arises - how did it happen that in different time, did the same signs appear in different cultures? It seems that the same events and phenomena evoke the same associations in people of different generations, the desire to describe them generates the same symbolic language.
The same can be said, for example, about the history of sacrifices. All the cultures of the world have come to the custom of appeasing the deity and getting forgiveness, but the fact is that no one taught them this. Or another example from the history of mankind, when people in completely different places and at different times spontaneously begin to bury their dead fellow tribesmen in the so-called "uterine position". There was no one to teach this to the Neanderthals who practiced this ritual 115 thousand years ago, and they could not pass on their experience to the inhabitants of pre-dynastic Egypt, or the Aztecs, or other Indian tribes. North America because these cultures are separated in time and space by an inaccessible distance. Probably, both of them were led to this by observation (the posture of the fetus in the womb) and similar ideas of rebirth to re-life.
Anyone who has ever dealt scientific research, knows that if your brain is ripe for understanding something new, then there is no doubt that this new one will very soon be reported by someone else in some scientific journal far away. Surprisingly, the fact is that we all think the same way, and it seems that our cultural heritage at all times it was formed in parallel as a result of the simultaneous work of creative thought in all corners of the earth.
But back to the Trypillia ceramics. The swastika sign in the form of a simple graphic symbol is also found on these vessels. But, in addition, and this is perhaps the most important thing, the swastika, as a symbol of the spiral, underlies most of the Trypillian ornaments, and in their artistic embodiment of the idea of ​​rotation, they seem to have surpassed everyone. The swastika is also used in symbolism as a sign of cosmic energy. The so-called swastika ornaments, which are based on a brace, occupied important place in the culture of the Celts (Celtic mandala). To see the Trypillian mandala, we, like many others, projected drawings from vessels onto paper in such a way that the neck of the jug became the center of the drawing, and it turned around the center, as if you were looking at the jug from above.

The Trypillian culture was widespread in the Eneolithic on the territory of the right-bank Ukraine, in Moldova, in eastern Romania (Cucuteni), and also in Hungary. It dates back to 4.000 - 2.000 BC. Approximately every 75 years Trypillians burned their settlements and moved to other places to rebuild. Exist different opinions about the origin of Trypillia culture. For V. Khvoyka, for example, it was an autochthonous population (ancestors of the Slavs), who lived on the territory of the Middle Dnieper. Complex history does not allow himself to be forgotten even for a moment. Trypillian culture, with its grandeur and magnificence, high humanism and the image of that "open society" that people only talk about modern politics, gives us the opportunity to look into the past in an attempt to recognize our future.

The autochthonous culture that existed before Trypillia was discovered only in the 40-50s of the XX century by the Ukrainian archaeologist V.Danilenok, and only then it became possible to talk about its relationship with Trypillia. In addition, for P. Tretyakov, the word "yani" in IV- III millennium x BC existed in more northern lands. Therefore, probably, the hypothesis of V. Markevich and V. Danilenk, according to which the local tribes of the Dniester variant of the Bug-Dniester culture were quickly assimilated by the Boyan (Balkan-Danube) newcomer tribes, and the Trypillian culture is nothing more than a synthesis of these two cultures, seems more likely. A contribution to this theory was also made by V. Zbenovich, who joined the opinion of his predecessors, but proved the absence of the influence of the Bug-Dniester culture, which is also quite possible.

Trypillia lived just when Noah was building his ark, the first pharaohs ruled, and only at the same time with the late Trypillia were the great pyramids erected. At that time, a significant increase in population density occurred on the territory of Trypillya-Kukuteni - several thousand inhabitants lived in the villages - more than in the Greek cities that arose two thousand years later and modern villages located on the site of Trypillia finds.


Trypillia culture is Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age). The culture was called "Cucuteni" after the name of the village in Romania, where the first artifacts associated with this culture were found. In 1884, the Romanian researcher T. Burada, during excavations, found elements of pottery and terracotta figurines near the village of Cucuteni. After the scientists got acquainted with his find, it was decided to continue the excavations, which began at this place in the spring of 1885.


For the first time, they started talking about the mysterious Trypillia at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the archaeologist Vikentiy Khvoyka published his archaeological finds, which were discovered near the villages - Trypillya and Khalepye. And even then it was clear that it was discovered whole culture the Neolithic era. And they named it after the place of the first finds - Trypilska. More than a hundred years have passed since then, but archaeologists still have more questions than answers.


The settlements were most often located on gentle slopes suitable for agriculture, near the water. Their area reached several tens of hectares. They consisted of several dozen ground-based adobe dwellings, separated by internal partitions. Part of the premises used for housing was heated by stoves and had round windows, part was allocated for storerooms. In such houses, according to the researchers, lived communities consisting of several families. Tools there were made of copper, animal bones and stone.


Trypillians grew wheat, naked oats, millet, peas, barley, beans, grapes, cherry plum, apricots. To cultivate the land, a slash or slash-and-burn system of agriculture was used (burning out areas of the forest and steppe and moving to another place after the soil was depleted). They raised cattle and small cattle, pigs (however, evidence of the use of fat, especially with garlic, was not found), dogs, horses (horses were not yet known in Egypt at that time!). They hunted with bows and arrows. Trypillian ceramics occupied one of the first places in Europe of that time in terms of the perfection of dressing and painting.


Trypillians were mostly peasants. Their housing complex is believed to have belonged to the same family. A common type of settlement is a "khutor", consisting of 7–15 small families, most likely close relatives. This way of life is not much different from the way of other developed societies of that time - Mesopotamia, North Africa, Central America.


However, Trypillians lived not only on farms, but also in huge, by the standards of that time, cities. They knew how to arrange the life of thousands of collectives, how to manage these collectives. Undoubtedly, they also had a city "head", and a bureaucracy, and a "police". And, maybe, original ZhEKs, registry offices, sobering-up stations, prisons. It is possible that the Trypillia "megalopolis" was a kind of prototype of the ancient city-state.
With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that life in Trypillia society was almost heavenly - quiet, peaceful, calm. After all, they had no enemies! The bow is a favorite weapon. But there are no signs of military clashes! Only traces of minor conflicts were found - several dozen (only!) Arrowheads found in one place. It seems that the Trypillia settlements were not pressured by wild steppe tribes - they simply did not exist at that time. Although the horse was tamed, but, judging by the harness, it was not used for military purposes.


A special role in Trypillia society belonged to a woman. Her day was spent in worries: she ground grains, carried water, fed living creatures, painted bowls and jugs, wove clothes, made shoes from skins - judging by the incredible number of female clay figurines, a woman in Trypillia society enjoyed great authority.
In every Trypillia house there was a loom, sometimes even two. Trypillia housewives were great craftswomen in the manufacture of shirts, dresses, scrolls. They decorated their products with colored ornaments with an original, unique pattern. On top of the dress, Trypillian women of fashion put on beads made of copper, stone, glass (yes, even at that time - glass!) beads, sea and river shells. They also knew a lot about jewelry made of gold and silver.


In the period from 5.500 to 4.000 BC, the so-called agricultural revolution took place on Earth - the transition from collecting plants to growing them, from hunting animals to breeding them. And the tribes of Trypillian culture switched to the main article of their economy - agricultural production, if not the first, then at least much earlier than the inhabitants of other regions of the planet. Conditions are optimal.


Cultivating the land, Trypillians lived in one place for 50-70 years. Then the land was depleted, and they moved to the neighboring territory. Researchers claim (and there is every reason for this) that their Agriculture It was so developed that there was nowhere to put the products: Trypillia civilization is one of the first agricultural societies that solved the problem of food. There were enough products not only for themselves: they were exported in huge quantities to other civilizations of that time - the Caucasus, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, the Balkans, Crete.


Trypillians were not only competent farmers, but also talented artisans. On the early stages most of their tools were stone, but in 3600-3150. BC e. they already had workshops for processing the main Neolithic raw material - flint, which was used for arrowheads, sickles, scrapers, axes and other household items.


The world began to master bronze at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Trypillian bronze products date back to the 5th millennium - already at that time they had a large number of copper tools High Quality, on which there was neither gas porosity, nor shrinkage defects, nor cracks.

Few people would not want to take credit for the invention of the wheel. However, the fact remains - while the world believes that the oldest image of the wheel is on the Sumerian frescoes of the south of Mesopotamia (3200 BC), the wheel is present on Trypillia ceramic figurines (if dating is correct) in 5000 years BC era. And the image of a horse in the materials of Trypillia is much more common than in other cultures of that time. Just like figurines of other domestic animals - cows, bulls, pigs, cats, dogs.


According to some estimates, for one and a half thousand years of wandering, the number of Trypillians was about two million people, and they all simply disappeared. Their villages-ashes are found throughout Ukraine, but the graves of the Trypillians themselves have never been found. According to one version, the reason for this "disappearance" was a sharp change in climate, due to which representatives of this culture scattered around the world.


According to another version, Trypillians went to live in underground caves. So at the end of the nineteenth century, near the village of Bilce - Zoloto, archaeologists found a cave called Verteba. And in it - a pottery workshop, household and agricultural utensils and several ancient burials. Until now, only 8 km of branched underground passages of this cave have been explored. Archaeologists leading excavations believe that this is only a quarter of the entire territory of the cave.
Behind V. Khvoyka, the Trypillian culture is a bridge between the Stone and Bronze Ages, so it would be correct to distinguish two periods in it:
The first associated with stone age, the second - with copper age. The first is a period of primitiveness in the forms of dishes, the use of tools made of flint or stone. At that time, agriculture was more developed, and there was almost no cattle breeding. More developed industries were hunting, fishing, and gathering. They settled mainly near the water, in dugouts or ground adobe houses. This settlement is characterized by such settlements as Luka-Vrublevetskaya, Bernashivka on the Dniester, P "yanishkiv circle of Uman, Lenkovtsy Solonchani and others.
Second - the period of use of tools and weapons made of copper, less primitive ceramics. In addition, patriarchal-clan relations are already beginning to be consolidated, although it is believed that such relations arose earlier due to the fact that men already played a large role in cattle breeding and hunting, in addition, the forest nature of agriculture required a lot of effort, which was impossible for women. The largest settlements of that time were Usatovo (near modern Odessa) and the Gorodskaya circle (Zhytomyr region).
At the Trypillia home altar, clay figurines of those Higher Forces, which they worshiped: the Mother Goddess - a symbol of motherhood and fertility, a bull - a symbol of the cultivation of the land and wealth, a snake - a symbol of resourcefulness, a dove - a symbol of heaven. Sacred representations of Trypillians are embodied not only in clay figurines, but also in patterns on ceramics - images of the sun, spiral, cross, circle, waves, "the all-seeing eye of Fate" are found everywhere. These ideas are in general similar to the worldview of the later peoples - the ancient Greeks, Scythians, Celts, Slavs. Actually, there is nothing surprising in this - the whole pagan worldview is similar: a three-tiered division of the world, worship of the forces of nature, Heaven, Earth, Water, the cult of the Great Mother. On the Tripolye figurines, the goddess Mother Earth is sometimes represented with raised hands - like Slavic goddess fertility Mokosh, as well as Sofiyivska Oranta. The cult of the Mother Goddess is common to the Trypillian civilization and the related civilization of Crete. From there, he passed into antiquity and incarnated in one of the most revered goddesses of Rome and Greece - the Mother of gods and mortals, Cybele.
However, with all the similarity of the ancient sacred views, the Trypillian society went its own way, created and developed its own religious ideas and its own rituals. For example, the popular "Chinese" yin-yang symbol - two snakes, forming an endless whirlwind of harmony and movement, seems to be first encountered among Trypillians.
The Temple occupied a special place in the life of Trypillians. It was brightly colored, ornamented, with high arches, a cruciform altar and a sacrificial bowl. N. Burdo, who was engaged in the reconstruction of the sacred complex of Trypillia, came to the conclusion that the basis of the Trypillia temple was the idea of ​​​​Revival, achieved through certain rituals to achieve highest goal- the immortality of the human soul.


Trypillian ceramics is one of the best in the world, and pottery is simply a work of art for that time. Ceramic dishes of that time were made from potter's clay mixed with quartz sand and freshwater mollusk shells. It was molded without a potter's wheel on a solid base, the thickness of its bottom prevailed over the thickness of the walls, and the walls themselves were of uneven thickness and not always correct form. Large utensils were molded from two separate parts. The outer surface was smooth and covered with red paint applied for painting and firing. The dishes were painted and unpainted.


A sacred, revered place in Trypillia dwellings was a stove (where our ancestors created beauty, healed brothers and cooked food at the Living Fire, because it was the hearth of life for them). Near the oven, rectangular or cruciform altars are sometimes found, near which (sometimes on special elevations) there were clay figurines, bowls on anthropomorphic stands, and vessels for grain ornamented with spirals.


In Balkan and East Slavic ethnography, ritual bread biscuits were especially obligatory in two cases: firstly, during the celebration of the harvest, when bread was solemnly baked from freshly threshed grain, and, secondly, at the winter New Year's holidays, when a preventive spell of nature was performed about the harvest coming year. The first, autumn rite was presumably directly associated with pagan women in childbirth (September 8) and with a special meal in their honor.

Tripoli images were mostly female, only occasionally male. Most likely, this was due to the ideas of matriarchy. What is the purpose of these figures also remains a mystery to us. Were these "children's toys", or, perhaps, cult figurines that were laid in the foundation in order to protect themselves from evil spirits? None of these theories have been proven for sure, so there's just nothing to say here. The figurines were standing and seated. The seated ones had a rounded face, no arms, and the legs were separated from each other. The standing ones were distinguished by the fact that they had hair. These figurines were placed near the fire-stove among Trypillians.

But Trypillian culture did not disappear without a trace. Increasingly popular among historians is the opinion that part of it characteristic features is reflected in the manner of building houses in Ukraine of the Middle Ages, in the ornaments used in Ukrainian embroidery, ceramics, when painting houses and Easter eggs.

The first prototype of this symbol of life, the symbol of the eternal movement of the world, which in the Slavic languages ​​​​was called "kolovrat" or "solstice"

(Again bullshit: "Kolovrat" can't be "solstice". Because exactly polar star the Slavs represented it as "Kol", around which the stars move. AT Ancient Russia and in the East, the constellation Ursa Major and the constellation Ursa Minor were combined into one and called it this way: a Horse tied to an iron nail (Polar Star) driven into the sky. In other stars of Ursa Minor, our ancestors saw a lasso worn around the neck of the Horse (the constellation Ursa Major). The picture of the starry sky changes due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Thus, during the day, the horse runs its way around the nail ...

The Cossacks call the North Pole Star: Funny Star; in the Tomsk province. she is known under the name: Kol-star, and the Kirghiz call her Temir-Kazyk, which literally means: iron stake. A joke is a small, quarter and a half, iron stake, on the blunt end of which a ring is attached; when you need to put the horse on the grass, the rider presses the pin into the ground to the very ring and ties the horse to it on a long rope or lasso. )

And all over the world it gained fame under the name "swastika", it is considered an ornament on a bracelet made of mammoth bone, found in a Neolithic site on the territory of Ukraine (Mezin culture), dated to the 20th millennium BC. The oldest graphic images of the swastika as a sign date back to 10-15 millennia BC. Archaeologists find this sign in Mesopotamia on the banks of the Indus River on objects from the 8th millennium BC. and on things that were only emerging in the fifth millennium of the Sumerian culture.
Of course, for us, the children of the 20th century, in which so many atrocities were committed under this sign, it is not pleasant and even hateful. But... if you suppress emotions and look objectively at this innocent sign, then you have to state that all over the world since ancient times it has been and remains one of the main symbols.
Translated from the sacred language of the Hindus, Sanskrit, the swastika (su - good, asti - being) means "good luck." However, both among the ancient Indians and among the pagan Slavs, this symbol was associated with the cult of the sun, was considered a sign of the solar deities and was called the "solar wheel".

(And again the bullshit. We write in the search engine "Perun's solar wheel" and read:

Thunder Sign or Thunder Wheel - sign of Perun. Represents a six-pointed cross or petal enclosed in a circle. I must say that the sign of Perun was distributed not only in Russia and not only among the Slavs. The thunder sign was used by the Celts, Scandinavians and other peoples. The thunder wheel was very common and was used almost everywhere - ornaments on clothes, carvings on huts, on spinning wheels, etc. Since this is a thunder sign, it was considered very favorable when such a talisman is on the hut (platbands and / or kokoshnik on the ridge of the hut), since it could ward off lightning. In addition, it is also a sign of a warrior, courage and courage. Archaeologists find it on armor, helmets, men's shirts.

The thunder sign is one of the varieties solar sign . The six pointed star is the sun wheel. According to the interpretations of the researchers, it can be judged that this is the sun itself, which is the wheel from the chariot of the Sky God Perun. Here you can draw an analogy with the heads of horses and the legs of a duck, which are harnessed to Dazhdbog's chariot and are also amulets.

In addition, Gromovnik, aka Perunika, aka Perun's shield is considered the flower of the Iris. Iris, along with oak, is revered as the plant of God Perun.)

Among the Slavs, it was a sign of the god of thunder Perun, among the Buddhists it was called the "Seal of the Buddha's Heart." He was beaten out on the statues of Buddha - a man spinning the wheel of time. Represented on almost all continents except Australia, this sign has been found since ancient times among all the peoples of Eurasia, in particular among the Celts, Scythians, Sarmatians, Bashkirs and Chuvashs, in pre-Christian Ireland, in Scotland, Iceland and Finland.
Over time, the swastika begins to be used in a broader philosophical sense, as a symbol of fertility and rebirth (well, well! this is what happens when atheists write about religion: laughter, and only). It acquires many different derived meanings from different peoples - as a symbol of the running of time in a circle, it turns into a sign of longevity in Japan, a sign of immortality and infinity in China. For Muslims, it means the four cardinal points and controls the change of the four seasons. The first, still persecuted Christians disguised their cross under the swastika, it was their emblem of Christ and a symbol of humility, like arms crossed as a sign of humility on the chest.
It is impossible to describe and even list everything, and we did not set ourselves such a goal (thank God!). What is clear is that since prehistoric times, the "sun wheel" has been perceived as a good sign, a sign of the sun and light, as an amulet and a talisman that brings good luck, and it can be found in a direct graphic or stylized form on a wide variety of objects in many cultures, including and Russian - on altars and in the paintings of temples, the architraves of houses, sacred vessels, on coins, clothes and weapons; the peoples of Africa are no exception in this series ( just the peoples of Africa are the exception), Indians of North and South America. Canadian Indians painted similar signs on their canoes.
After the overthrow of the autocracy, the swastika (Kolovrat) appeared on the banknotes of the Provisional Government, and this money was in use until 1922. It is said that the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had a special fondness for this sign. She put it on the pages of her diary, on greeting cards, and in exile she drew it with her own hand in the Ipatiev House - her last refuge in Yekaterinburg.
From all that has been said, it becomes quite obvious that people from ancient times lived not only with vital concerns. The problems of the universe worried them no less than us. About how they understood the phenomena of the surrounding world, about their abstract thinking, we can guess from the drawings preserved on household items, unraveling the secret meaning of their symbols.
The question arises - how did it happen that at different times, in different cultures, the same signs appeared? It seems that the same events and phenomena evoke the same associations in people of different generations, the desire to describe them generates the same symbolic language.
The same can be said, for example, about the history of sacrifices. All the cultures of the world have come to the custom of appeasing the deity and getting forgiveness, but the fact is that no one taught them this. Or another example from the history of mankind, when people in completely different places and at different times spontaneously begin to bury their dead fellow tribesmen in the so-called "uterine position". There was no one to teach this to the Neanderthals who practiced this ritual 115 thousand years ago (???), and they could not pass on their experience either to the inhabitants of pre-dynastic Egypt, or to the Aztecs, or to other Indian tribes of North America, because these cultures are separated in time and space to an inaccessible distance. Probably, both of them were led to this by observation (the posture of the fetus in the womb) and similar ideas of rebirth to re-life.
Anyone who has ever been engaged in scientific research knows that if your brain is ripe for understanding something new, then there is no doubt that this new one will very soon be reported by someone else in some scientific journal far away. . Surprisingly, it is a fact that we all think the same way, and it seems that our cultural heritage at all times was formed in parallel as a result of the simultaneous work of creative thought in all corners of the earth.
But back to the Trypillia ceramics. The swastika sign in the form of a simple graphic symbol is also found on these vessels. But, in addition, and this is perhaps the most important thing, the swastika, as a symbol of the spiral, underlies most of the Trypillian ornaments, and in their artistic embodiment of the idea of ​​rotation, they seem to have surpassed everyone. The swastika is also used in symbolism as a sign of cosmic energy. The so-called swastika ornaments, which are based on a gyroscope, occupied an important place in the culture of the Celts (Celtic mandala). To see the Trypillian mandala, we, like many others, projected drawings from vessels onto paper in such a way that the neck of the jug became the center of the drawing, and it turned around the center, as if you were looking at the jug from above.